6 October, 2009Throughout Asia, EPZ workers face the worst working conditions and the most obstacles to joining a trade union. But unions in the region are developing creative ways to reach EPZ workers and improve their working lives.
INDONESIA: Unions from seven Asian countries came together in Batam, Indonesia on September 30 to share successful strategies for organizing workers in Export Processing Zones (EPZs). The island of Batam is itself an EPZ where IMF Indonesian affiliates FSPMI and Lomenik-SBSI have managed to organize many of the factories located there.
Delegates once again emphasized the poor quality of jobs in EPZs and the enormous difficulties that must be surmounted in order to make contact with workers and organize them. Precarious employment is endemic in EPZs, wages are low and often underpaid and working hours are excessive, in many cases exceeding legal maximum hours. Unions are restricted from entering EPZs and so are forced to find alternative means to reach workers.
Given the high percentage of women workers in EPZs, at times up to 90 per cent, affiliates reaffirmed the importance of ensuring that women take on leadership roles and are given training to be active in the union.
Wages emerged as a key issue to organize around with some unions taking action in support of increases to the minimum wage. In other cases unions have discovered workers being underpaid and have motivated them to join the union by helping them ensure they are paid correct wages.
All unions involved in EPZ organizing stressed the value of taking organizing beyond the workplace and into communities. Delegates from TEAM in Thailand said that organizing in the communities where workers live helps raise the profile of the union and creates a positive impression. In the Philippines, workers that have been laid off organize on the ground in their communities. One union in India has a special unit dedicated to helping members address their social needs. This can involve assistance in securing places in school for workers' children, or support in applying for a bank loan.
At the same time as organizing, unions are taking action at the political level to persuade governments of the negative impacts of their EPZ policies. In India there is strong resistance from unions and other social groupings to the government's policy to promote SEZs, or Special Economic Zones. The net outcome of constructing an SEZ is often the opposite of the stated intention, namely the loss of jobs and reduction in incomes. This is because construction of an SEZ involves massive displacement of people dependent on agricultural, fisheries and related self-employment.
The meeting concluded that unions must work on two fronts: to organize EPZ workers and improve their working conditions and at the same to force governments to reconsider whether their EPZ policies promote sustainable industries and employment.